Philadelphia Fed manufacturing indexSeasonally adjustedRevised
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia · monthly · 701 observations
29th highest of 701 months since May 1968 (Philly Fed history since May 1968)
−9.6 vs prior month+18.3 vs a year earlier
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
About this series
What it measures
A diffusion index: the percentage of manufacturers in the Philadelphia Fed's Third District (Delaware, southern New Jersey, and eastern and central Pennsylvania) reporting higher general business activity than the prior month minus the percentage reporting lower, seasonally adjusted. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia publishes it monthly. The headline is the current general activity index; it ranges from -100 to 100.
Why it matters
It is a long-running regional factory survey and is released before most national manufacturing data for the same month.
Common misreads
It is a voluntary survey of firms in one region and is volatile. The index counts direction, not size, of changes, and zero is the midpoint. Seasonal factors are recalculated each January, revising past values.